Felpham Sailing Club Aries Series Races 5 & 6 and Viking Series Race 4
by James Gerwat 30 Apr 2019 06:18 BST
28 April 2019
Felpham Sailing Club Aries Series Races 5 & 6 © Charlie Howell
Races 5 & 6 of the Aries Series at FSC were run on a Triangular course, Force 3 from the North West. Given that the wind was from the North, the sea state was flat & all the shifts & gusts easy to see (for some)... and some of those gusts were 18 knots or so.
The committee boat was out of action today & so the start line was off the clubhouse...a long line with a reaching start.
Seventeen boats hit the start line all at once the D Zeros of James Gerwat & Mark Aldous along with the Lark of Martin & Connor Gillam got the best get away.
The third leg was the beat (finally) and it was here that the Lark over-hauled both DZeros to take the lead on the water.
Mark Aldous (D Zero) pulled away from the other D Zero (James Gerwat) in pursuit of the Lark. Meanwhile, the Aero 7 (Chris Whitney) slowly overhauled James & had his sight on the next DZero.
Alas, Mark had a moment at the leeward mark & went backwards at speed & what was looking like a great result became a damage limitation exercise.
Further down the fleet in the 'slower' boats things were shaping up for Guy Mayger (Solo) & Chris Bull (Laser Radial).
After 44 minutes for the first boat on the water (Lark), the handicaps were applied... and the winner by 2 seconds on corrected was indeed Guy Mayger over the Lark. Chris Bull came in 3rd.
Race 6 saw only 13 boats compete. Apparently the safety boat had been active on the previous race!
First out of the blocks was Richard Bentley (Aero 7) followed by James Gerwat (D Zero). The Blaze of Richard Ganley was hot on their heels.
The D Zero & the Blaze disappeared in to the distance, much to everyone's surprise. Richard Ganley getting the better of the Dzero & even doing enough to beat the Lark (Martin & Connor Gillam) by 11 seconds on corrected time.
The third & final race of the day was Race 4 of the Viking Cup. The wind had eased a bit & began moving more to the West. We had 6 boats start.
Chris Whitney (Aero 7) flew off the line with the D Zero (James Gerwat) on his transom, who had the other Aero 7 (Richard Bentley) on his transom.
However, the first mark was a gybe mark & Chris had an aberration & contrived to snatch defeat from the jaws of a probable victory by turning his boat upside down. Laughter ensued from the other Aero 7...
So the D Zero led the way around until the Blaze (Richard Ganley) caught & passed him on the beat.
The race officer called it a day after the 3rd lap & once again Guy Mayger won on corrected time over the Blaze & then the DZero.
Aries Race 5 Results:
1st Guy Mayger
2nd Martin & Connor Gillam
3rd Chris Bull
Aries Race 6 Results:
1st Richard Ganley
2nd Martin & Connor Gillam
3rd James Gerwat
Viking Race 4 Results:
1st Guy Mayger
2nd Richard Ganley
3rd Richard Bentley
Full results can be found here.